A braking drift current on the slopes of wind waves in an amplification zone

A drift current was experimentally studied on the slopes of wind waves in an amplification zone. It was found that the drift decreases proportionally to the wave steepness at the front wave slope. We tested a hypothesis that relates the decrease in the drift velocity at the front wave slope with the formation of vortices in a viscous air layer. A physical model of the event and a method for the calculation of the drift decrease at the front wave slope in an amplification zone are suggested. The model calculations agree well with experimental data within the measurement error, which is less than 10% of the measured value.